A morning spent in a London police court is always
interesting. Courts, no doubt, vary to some extent according to the personality of the magistrate, but there is no very great difference between them. In most, as in the one I visited last week, there is a marked lack of unnecessary formalities, with a kind of sardonic friendli- ness between the authorities and habitual occupants of the dock. What 1 found particularly noteworthy was the generally sympathetic outlook of the magistrate, the quiet competence of one or two young policewomen who gave evidence and the manifestly admirable qualities of the probation officer. But in certain classes of case the police court presents a depressing demonstration of the law as farce. Take, in particular, prosti- lutes charged with soliciting and barrow-boys charged with obstruction. In either case there is the briefest evidence by a police-officer, an immediate plea of guilty and an immediate sentence to a fine of anything from 40s. to 5s. Rarely does a single case take as much as two minutes. Some of the defendants had been there less than a week before, to pay the usual tine. It is all part of business expenses and its value as a deterrent is precisely nil. The way out is not clear. The magistrate can inflict-no heavier penalty than the law permits, and a heavy penalty for stationing a barrow in the wrong place would not be countenanced. Yet as it is the law is daily brought into dis- repute—which is bad, because the law ought to be respected.
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